“It was putting teams away, playing to win and not just playing for the time to run out,” Zeller said of the lessons learned from an upset loss at Illinois on Thursday. “So, we made that adjustment pretty well.”

The Hoosiers (21-3, 9-2 Big Ten) dominated the second half while making some history and staying in the thick of the Big Ten race.

“We knew we let one get away from us,” Watford said. “At that point, you just have to move on to the next one.”

The Hoosiers were coming off an epic collapse that might have caused the undoing of many teams. The Illini went on a 13-2 run to close the game, with Indiana turning the ball over late, then allowing an uncontested layup at the buzzer of a 74-72 shocker.

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Less than three days later, they more than rebounded with a signature win in hostile territory.

The victory was Indiana's first against a top-10 conference opponent on the road in more than 20 years — since a win in 1993 at Iowa. It was also the Hoosiers' first win against any team in the top 10 on the road since beating Notre Dame in 2000.

“From the very beginning after we lost the other night, the biggest thing for our team was we were not going to spend a lot of our time worrying about bouncing back,” coach Tom Crean said. “I'm proud of the way these guys responded from a very tough loss.”

Indiana, 3-0 against top-10 teams this year, stayed in lock step with the leaders in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are tied with Michigan State (9-2) in the standings. Michigan and Wisconsin are next at 8-3, followed by Ohio State at 7-4.

The Hoosiers shot 53 percent from the field, the highest by any Ohio State opponent this season. They did it by pounding the ball to Zeller down low, or hitting open jumpers when they got them. They seldom settled for a quick shot, instead patiently waiting until they could find a teammate who had an even better look.

The Hoosiers — mostly their triumvirate of Oladipo, Zeller and Watford — always seemed to come up with a big play when most needed.

“Today we got a lot of really good basketball from Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller and Christian Watford,” Crean said. “(They) played as well as a triangle — three guys — that you could get.”

Ohio State got as close as eight points in the final minute, but this time the Hoosiers refused to suffer a similar collapse.

Indiana native Deshaun Thomas, the Big Ten's scoring leader, finished with 26 points. Aaron Craft added 16 points for the Buckeyes (17-6, 7-4), who dropped two games back of the Big Ten leaders.